Friday, June 24, 2011

I have to first say that I absolutely LOVE this product. I bought a few blaster boxes at release, and was very pleased with what I pulled. I got some PC stuff, sold some hits, but generally wasn't going to try for the set because of the toughness. I amassed a good number of cards that I traded away over the past month or so, and I now regret it, because I really want to complete this set.

So I found a retail box of Gypsy Queen online, ordered it, and broke the box on Thursday. I was very pleased with the results; you are guaranteed one hit, a Game-used card, either a jersey or bat relic. Lucky me, I got my hit (Jacoby Ellsbury red jersey), but I also pulled a Carl Pavano card with a 13-cent stamp from 1976, with the Connecticut flag on it. The card was also numbered 9/10, a very rare card, indeed.

I also pulled a couple of bronze-framed cards numbered to 999, Nelson Cruz and Justin Morneau, and got 24 mini-cards. The base and inserts brought me to about 35% complete for the set, but I figured I'd try to sell the stamp card on eBay and recoup some of the cost if the box. I ran into a problem trying to find a value for the card, though.

Not surprising, seeing that there are only 10 of the cards in existence to begin with. On other stamp cards, though, the final sales prices fluctuated wildly, with no rhyme or reason. So I figured I'd list for half the box price, or $39.99, with free shipping, and I'd make it a 5-day auction. I could always drop the price if it doesn't sell.

I listed the card yesterday at roughly 3:15 PM, and figured I'd just ride it out. How would I have guessed that just 15 minutes later, I get an e-mail saying that my card has sold! But now I start doubting myself - it sold too fast; I must have listed it for not enough. Now I'm kicking myself - could I have listed it for $50 and made a sale?

Well, it's too late now; the card is gone. I do have a nice addition to my Paypal account, and I'm working my way towards completing my 3rd set of 2011 (2010 Bowman Platinum is done, and I need just 5 more cards for the 440-card set of 2011 Bowman).

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Over the past few days, I decided to go through the laborious task of cataloging every baseball card I own into a Word document, and saving it on a flash drive. Since I've been back in the hobby, I've been buying and selling so much product that I really don't know what I have, exactly. It is time-consuming, to say the least, and it won't get any easier with my 2011 Bowman box coming today. Add another 192 or so cards to the list.

What I'm finding, though, is depressing - I have a lot of "junk". Junk as in many, many commons. I'm taking a guess that when I'm done with this project that I will have somewhere in the neighborhood of 3,000 cards. Not much by some standards, but enough. And a good majority of those are crap. Almost-complete sets of 1987 and 1988 Topps. 2007 and 2010 Topps Updates. 2008 SP Authentic. Even my vintage years are mostly commons.

I've tried selling cards as large lots, as "U-pick" lots, and as team lots, and nothing is working. It seems everybody is in the market for autographs, serial numbered, rainbows, etc. Which is fine, except that I'm stuck with a lot of flotsam that I can't move.

I have my 1974 Topps set that I'm working on that holds a special place, as it was the first year I really started collecting cards (I was 9). I have my Phillies cards, some going back as far as 1957. That's special because of my fan-dom. And I have my PC's to keep me interested. But the other stuff is just that - stuff.

I can't sell it (because it won't), but I can't just throw it all way, either...as worthless as it is, I find throwing baseball cards away to be sacreligous.

Maybe it's just that I put too much value on the cards. I had my entire 1976 collection up on eBay a few weeks back, $29.99 for 176 cards, and got no takers. That's 17 cents per card - maybe that's too high a price, I don't know. There were a lot of Hall-of-Famers in that lot, too.

Nevertheless, I'm working my way through the inventory and will hopefully come up with a way to consolidate my collection to the things I really care about, without just dumping cards.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A few weeks ago I discovered a free service geared towards eBay bidders called GavelSnipe. This site allows you to enter a max bid on an item you're watching, and it will execute a bid for you at a specified time, usually within the last few seconds of an auction. I hadn't had much success with this, until last night.

But first, I'll tell you my bidding theory. When I see a card that piques my interest on eBay, I will study the most recent completed sales (including shipping) of that card to determine an average sales price, and a pricing trend. That gives me a baseline from which to make my max bid. I make it a rule of mine to not bid more than the average sales price, unless the card is trending upward.

So, I had 3 active "snipes" out last night: first was a 2010 Bowman Sterling Gold refractor, numbered 44/50, of Phillies catching prospect Sebastian Valle. This card's average sales price was $9.45. Less the $2.00 shipping cost, my max bid would be $7.45 for the card. I won the snipe last night at $4.25 - not bad.

Next, I had a bid out on a 2010 Bowman Sterling dual auto of Team USA players Matt Barnes and Brad Miller, both projected #1 draft pick next month. Average sales price was $17.05, but the price was trending upward the past week. I put my max bid at $17.55, and won the snipe at a price of $7.05 - getting better!!

Finally, my last snipe was on a 2010 Bowman Platinum Blue Refractor Auto of Phillies prospect Matt Rizzotti, numbered 60/99. This one was more of a shot in the dark. There were no recent previous sales for the blue refractors, but a Rizzotti green refractor auto numbered to 199 sold recently for $11.55. After doing a bit of research on other greens vs. blues, I found that there was about a 1.25 markup on blue autos over greens. So I figured the bid on the Rizzotti blue would be about $14.50 - I won the card at $8.50 - also, not bad.

In total, I had 3 bids out for $39.50, and I won with a total outlay of $19.80, just about a 50% discount off of my max bids. What helped on the dual auto and the Rizzotti auto may have been that the auctions ended later in the evening on the East Coast. Also, the listing for the Rizzotti said it was a Green refractor auto, but the picture and inside description said it was a Blue - maybe that worked in my favor, I don't know.

Either way, I got 3 nice cards on the cheap to add to my PC's. In the case of the Barnes/Miller dual auto, it may present a good selling opportunity after the draft, depending on where they are picked. But overall, a good night for sniping.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Even though I primarily collect baseball cards, I've been a hockey fan for slightly longer. My first hockey game was early in the 1973-74 NHL season, when I saw the Atlanta Flames take on the Philadelphia Flyers at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I didn't go to my first baseball game until May of 1974 (Phillies-Dodgers at the old Vet).

My best friend was the one who got me into hockey cards, and I had a bunch that he gave me from the 1972-73 season, and I collected up until 1979 or so. Sadly, those cards are long gone.

But with my return to baseball collecting this year, I decided to start a PC of one of the most exciting young players on my team, the Flyers: Claude Giroux. So last week, I found a seller on eBay auctioning a 5-card lot of Giroux base cards, and I took the plunge:

Giroux's got an extensive checklist (especially for a young player), so I think using him as my hockey PC will keep me busy there. Plenty of GU's and autos to go along with his base cards.

Don't hesitate to steer me in the right direction - I'll be looking mainly at Upper Deck, SP, and Panini. I don't like the O-Pee-Chee cards, and I won't bother with the likes of Fleer.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

I'm a sucker for blaster boxes. Bowman Draft, Bowman Platinum, Topps Series I, Topps Heritage. I have no problem deciding on the spur of the moment to go to Target and drop $20 on one. Usually, I don't have much luck.

Until yesterday.

I bought a Topps Heritage blaster, only my second of the year, and ended up with 2 hits:

Now, I'm not much into the Game-used/Relic cards; this is actually the first one I've pulled, and only the second that I own (I bought a Matt Barnes GU/Auto a fw weeks back). This card doesn't have great value on eBay, so I guess I'll hold this for trading purposes.

The Halladay/Barton card, on the other hand, got me a bit more psyched. I'm a Phillies fan, and the A's are one of the teams I root for in the AL (the Orioles being the other), so this one is a little more special. It's also the second "stamps" card I've pulled. I made a mistake selling off the other one so quickly, so I will hold this one for trade bait, too, unless the value goes through the roof.

I also pulled 3 SP's from this box, Miguel Cabrera, Yunel Escobar, and Aubrey Huff. I'm currently negotiating a trade with someone who's collecting all the SP's - I'm attempting to pad my PC in exchange for some of those. The Cabrera card, though, is selling for $5 on eBay, so I may hold that one for a better trade.

I'm looking at buying my first hobby box, too. The 2011 Bowman comes out next month, and I think I'm going to take the dive, buy the box, and hopefully score some more hits.